1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a tape cutter which is capable of cutting tapes of various widths into a shape corresponding to the width.
2. Description of the Prior Art
For the purpose of lessening the possibilities of defoliation of a tape strip from a surface to which the tape is bonded, there has been introduced tape cutters which are arranged to cut an end portion of a tape strip into an arcuate shape by the use of a cutter blade having arcuate portions formed at the opposite ends thereof according to the tape width. The tape cutters of this sort are usually provided with a guide groove on a tape support member according to the width of the tape, along with means for restricting sideward movements of the tape strip as it is inserted into the guide groove. Accordingly, the tape strip is guided into a center position relative to the cutter blade and cut exactly into a predetermined shape by the cutter blade.
Such a tape cutting apparatus, however, has a problem that there have to be provided a plural number of cutter units having guide grooves of different widths and cutter blades of different lengths in order to cut tapes of different widths into a desired shape.
It follows that, in a case where the tape cutter is to be provided on a tape printing apparatus, a number of cutter units need to be provided on the printer to cope with the variations in width of the tapes to be handled by the printer. This will be reflected by an unduly large increase in size of the tape printing apparatus and also by an increased number of component parts which will naturally lead to a high manufacturing cost.